That before and after from my first home development attempt... oof

Shot a roll of Portra 400 at my cousin's wedding in Cleveland. Sent it to the lab and got back 36 frames of blank orange. Then I finally tried developing my own black and white last week. Same camera, same metering, but the negatives came out so thin you could read a newspaper through them. Realized I was agitating the tank wrong for 3 minutes straight. My friend said 'looks like you developed ghosts' when I showed him. Has anyone else ruined a roll by just not shaking the tank enough?

2 comments

2 Comments

allen.ruby1mo ago

Admitted to myself I was way too careful with agitation because I didn't want to mess it up. Watched a video of someone just flipping their tank like a maniac and realized gentle swaying does nothing. Now I shake it like it owes me money and my negatives actually have contrast on them.

derekgibson29d ago

Laugh out loud reading "owes me money" - that's honestly the most perfect description of developing I've ever heard. I'm still stuck in the gentle swaying phase but you might have just convinced me to go full aggressive mode this weekend. Got to admit I'm a little scared of sloshing developer all over my darkroom though, that's the only thing holding me back.